Perl, SSH port forwarding, and secure VNC

[xorl]

Hello,

I'm trying to write a script that sets up ssh -L x:localhost:y remotehost

without me typing my password on remotehost. I know Net::SSH:Perl will let me login without me having to type my password at run time. However I don't see where I can pass more options (specifically the -L option) to ssh.

This is only one part of the script. I'm trying to automate a secure vnc connection. I'm using the info at http://www.uk.research.att.com/archive/vnc/sshvnc.html Basically once I get the SSH port forwarding done, I'm just going to do an exec("vncviewer localhost").

So maybe I should have started this post with - "Is this the best way to set this up?"

Thanks in advance.